Silo-doors and fastening means therefor.



W. HAYWARD. SILO DOORS AND FABTBNING MEANS THEBEFOR'.

` Arruoulon rrmsnvrma. 2, 1912.

1,054,292. Patented Feb.25, 1913.

UN lTED- STATES FATEN T OFFICE.

WILLIAM HAYWARD', 0F XVENATCHEE., WASHINGTON.

' SILO-DOORS AND FASTENING MEANS THEREFOR.

To all whom it may concern:

- Be it known that I, VILLIAM HAYWARD,

a citizen of theV United States, residing at Wenatchee, i'n the county of Chelan and u which the following is a specification.

provide doors which may be conveniently This invention relates to improvements in doors for silos, and has for its objectv to closed or opened and ot' such construction that the closure will beV practically effective to lrevent ingress or egress ofair.

hile the door and its mount-ing is de-` scribed in connection with a silo, it may be.

employed to advantage as a grain door or ,for other purposes.

Thevinvention has reference 'to the formation of a substantially fiat vertical wall or face for the cylindrical body 'of the silo,

l and to provide therein between its top and bottom and at substantially uniform intervals, circular openings, ports or man-holes; a two-partI doory being employed 'for and conformingto the` shape of each circularV opening as a closureV therefor; a pair of L-shaped supporting-levers being employed andv arranged to swing from brackets, to convey the two halves of the .door inwardly from the opening, the arms of the lever, when the two parts of the door are closed, forming one of the rungs of a ladder.-

The lnvention includes a continuous wall 'o'fbeveled or mitered form for the dooropening, as bearings for the inclined or beveled walls of the'door; also, it includes YAmeans connected with the supporting-levers for causing the doors when closed to be disposed in alinement in the openings.

It also includes means for`securing the doors when closed, and certain adjustable features found to beof advantage for se curing the doors loosely upon or in closed relation with their bearings', as may be desired.

Vith these objects in view and others to be mentioned, the invention presents a novel and useful construction, combination and arrangement of parts as described hereii; and claimed, and' as illustrated in the drawino, wherein,-

Figure 1 is ah enlarged, vertical, front view of a portion 'of the silo shown in Fig. 3 and illustrating, in detail, one of the doors. 2 is a transverse section of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 2, 1912.

Patented Feb. 25, 1913. Serial N0. 674,902.

the doors and wall of the silo, the view being on line a a of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a 'side or front elevation of a silo. Fig. 4 is a detail relating to Fig. 1, showing one of the pivotally mounted brackets and an adjusting-plate- Fig. is a transversesection on line a' a: of Fig. 1, showing the mounting ot' a door upon the arm of a lever.

Referring-now to the drawing fora more particular description, numeral 4 indicates the upright body or wall oi a silo, hoops l5 generally being employed to ciroumscribc the wall.

At G is indicated a fiat portion of the wall, preferably extending from the bottoni to the top of the silo, and in this fiat portion at substantially uniform intervals arepro-l Y vided circular openings i each having the continuous,"inwardly-divergent or beveled bearing-wall 8 for the double door 9, the two halves of the door, indicated at b and c.

Doors 9 are of vcircular form, and when mounted in openings 7 their outwardlyconvergent or beveled walls 10 may have bearings upon the continuous wall 8, and therefore the doors must open' inwardly of for co-nvenience, being the silo. Each door 9 preferably consists of the two semi-circular doors b and c each having a straight wall 11 of mitered or beveled form; and `when the doors b and o are disposed within an aperture or opening 7, walls 1l may 'have bearings ,upon each other.` It is obvious that if means be provided for causing an outward pressure of the doors upon wall 8 and a pressure of their walls 11 upon each other, a passa e of air outwardly or inwardly of the si o may be practically prevented.

At 12 are indicated brackets, each having a foot-picce 13 for a mounting upon a casting or adjusting-plate 14, one ofsaid 4plates being secured upon the wall of the silo at each sido of a doorway or opening 7. The brackets are therefore oi angular form, and the body ofeach bracket projects horizontally and outwardly of wall G, and its foot-piece may be pivotally secured to the casting by a bolt 15.

Pivotally mounted at 16 in the outer terminal of'each bracket is an L-shaped lever 17 its arm 18 projecting inwardly and having a pivotal mounting at its terminal upon the screw-bolts '19,y pintles or pivot-bolts '19 being employed for this. connection. vScrewbolts 19 are employed in pairs and are ymounted one above the other and near the inner edges of the doors and c, and by a longitudinal adjustment of these bolts, doors 'and c may be disposed in alinement Within an opening 7 and when doors b and c are closed, arras 2G of the supporting-levers nwill be disposed in horizontal alinement, To maintain arms 20 in horizontal alinement and thereby prevent sagging of the doors, set screws 27 are provided, and they 'are mounted inthe bosses d at the outer ends of the adjusting-plates for engagement with. the terminals of each toot-piece v13.

In t-he drawing and best shown in Fig. l, 'areindioated reinforcing plates 21 for the- -innerends of the supporting-levers, this'being to provide. a strong and convenient construction. Y

At 22' are indicated holder-members, latches :or hooks having their inner ends -inounte'd' in the longitudinally-adjustable members orI sc reweyes 22', and their outer terminals may catch upon the supportinglevers.

` The screw-eyesk are preferably mounted substantially upon the middle part of each door. b and c, and they may have a threaded connection with anchorblocks 23 seated in the body of these doors as shown in Fig. 2, and an adjustment is therefore provided, so that each door Z) and c may have an outward pressure upon the bearing wall. 8. It the screw-eyes are rotated, hooks 22 will, of course, be disposed farther from or nearer to the doors b and c, and when the hooks engage the supportingdevers, the doors will have a corresponding lesseror greater pressure, as may bedesired, upon their bearings 8.

Arms levers, are' their junction with arms 18, these extensions being in alinement with arms 20, and preferably they have beveled terminals f, to operate as stops, as best shown in Fig. 2. rIhe terminals of the brackets are preferably formed' as pockets 24, whereby they provide sockets for mountings therein ot the supporting-levers, this arrangement, in eiiect` providing a hinge joint for each supporting lever. In operation, to open the doors, the hook of door b is first released from the supporting-lever which it engages, and this door 20 of4 the L-shaped supportingprovided with extensions e at may then be swung inwardly of the silo to the position shown by .the dotted lines in F ig. 2; and after releasing the hook of door c from the other supporting-lever, said. door c may also be swung inwardly. `To close the doors the operation is the reverse to that just described.

It will be noted that when the doors b and c are closed, arms 20 form a rung of a ladder, and lat 25 are indicated other rungs oit the ladder, these being disposed between openings or doorways 7 and secured to wall 6 by any suitable means, as by arms or brackets 26, and the construction is such that 'when the doors are closed, the rungs formed by arms 20 'are' preferably disposed in vertical alinerentwith rungs 25.

"While I have shown doors b'and c of semicircular form, and prefer this construction. I doxnot limitmyself in `this respect, and while I have shown and described hooks 22 and their connections, I may employ other means for securing the doors and for causing them to be cgmpressed upon their bearings.

Having fully described the several' parts and their uses, a further explanation relating to operation is not necessary.

`What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- V In a silo door construction, the combinaF tion with a silo body having a plurality of vertically alined openings formed therein, a pair of abutting doors for each of said openings, a pair of Lshaped levers, the free ends of which. are pivotally connected to said doors adjacent their abutting edges, said levers lying horizontally and centrally across said doors, brackets to which the long arms of the L-shaped levers are pivoted, said brackets holding said levers in spaced relation to the outer faces of said` doors, said levers conjointlyforming the rung of a ladder, and laterally extending hooks pivoted to the faces of said doors and adapted to engage said levers to look ,them intorigid relation-to said doors. V

In testimony whereof I have attixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

IILLIAM HAYYVRD.

l-Yitnesses Hman A. Simmons, A. I". CLARK.n

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing 4the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington. D. C. 

